Distributed ‘End-Plate Potentials’ of Crustacean Muscle Fibres

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Abstract
Crustacean muscles are known to produce powerful contractions without propagated action potentials (Wiersma, 1941a; Katz & Kuffler, 1946 ; Katz, 1949). It has been suggested (Wiersma, 1941a) that this type of response is made possible by the presence of nerve endings which are widely distributed along the surface of the muscle fibres. When nerve impulses arrive at the endings, a local depolarization is produced in the muscle fibre and in turn gives rise to contraction. This depolarization will be referred to as ‘end-plate potential’ (e.p.p.) by analogy with the e.p.p. of vertebrate muscle. A sufficiently large e.p.p. initiates a spike potential (Katz & Kuffler, 1946), which serves to strengthen the muscle response and, probably, to level out local inequalities in the fibre rather than to conduct excitation (cf. Fatt & Katz, 1953).

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